1. Field
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating and providing information related to multimedia content such as motion pictures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, digital broadcasting such as digital television (DTV), digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H), MediaFLO™, digital cable, satellite broadcasting, and internet protocol television (IPTV) has become gradually more popular. Digital broadcasting provides a totally new environment that is different from a broadcasting environment provided through conventional analog televisions. For example, digital broadcasting provides high quality content at an HD (high definition) level that is 6 to 7 times higher than the conventional analog televisions. The development of compression technology such as MPEG-2/4 enables multichannel broadcast. Also, a variety of additional services such as bidirectional data broadcasting may be provided through digital broadcasting.
Digital broadcasting is able to provide various additional services beyond content such as motion picture. For example, life information service such as news and weather, bidirectional service such as shopping, games, stocks, banking, and video-on-demand (VOD), or relevant information service such as products, film locations, and background music related to content can be provided by digital broadcasting.
Digital broadcasting uses an advanced television systems committee (ATSC) standard for a ground wave type, an open cable application platform (OCAP) standard for a cable type, a DVB standard for a satellite broadcasting type, and a digital audio broadcasting (DAB) standard of Europe for a DMB type. There are three international data standards: (1) the OCAP, (2) an advanced common application platform (ACAP), and (3) a multimedia home platform (MHP). In Korea, the OCAP standard is used for the cable data broadcasting, the ACAP standard is used for the ground wave data broadcasting, and a DVB-MHP standard is used for the satellite broadcasting. Also, the DMB uses a Korean T-DMB standard based on the European DAB. The data broadcasting uses MPEG-4 binary format for scenes (BIFS), dynamic label segment (DLS), and broadcasting web site (BWS) standards.
FIG. 1 illustrates a system in which a content provider of digital broadcasting provides additional services according to a conventional technology. Referring to FIG. 1, a content provider (CP) 110 provides content to a user 120 using a service. Most of the content providers 110 are typically broadcasting companies having a large amount of funds and an infra system while the user 120 may be unspecified individuals. The user 120 could utilize the provided service by using all sorts of digital processing devices capable of consuming provided content, such as digital TVs, mobile devices, and personal computers.
In a typical broadcasting method, under a digital broadcasting environment, a content delivered to the user 120 includes information in addition to multimedia content itself such as motion picture. That is, the content provider 110 provides additional information in addition to motion picture content. But in this case, the additional information services delivered by the content provider 110 of digital broadcasting is insufficient to satisfy various demands of different users 120.